CANNIBAL! Apple's 7.85in iPad will EAT 9.7in iPad sales

Apple's much-rumoured 'iPad Mini' will eat into sales of the larger model, but it's still going to lead to a massive increase in sales of the platform - if Apple releases such a gadget at all.

So says Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest, a US stockbroker. Hargreaves this week said he reckons that for every buyer who opts for a 7.85in iPad instead of the 9.7in model, three more iPad Mini owners will be new to the platform.

His estimate for 7.85in iPad sales: Apple will sell ten million 7.85in iPads in Q4 - Apple's first quarter of fiscal 2013. It'll sell 35.2m of the scaled-down tablets in the 12 months to 31 September 2013.

The iPad Mini is expected to debut in time for the Christmas sales season, sporting 8GB of storage - a possible replacement for the currently still available iPad 2, some say. Price estimates range from $300 to $400 (£191-255), but almost certainly well above the $200 (£128) Amazon and Google are charging for their 7in tablets.

Some rumours suggest the smaller iPad will have a 1536 x 2048 "retina" display, others that it will match the iPad 2's 768 x 1024 screen - though with a higher pixel density because the screen is smaller: 163ppi to the iPad 2's 132ppi. The iPad 3's screen is 264ppi. ®